The Monastery of Gerasimus of the Jordan, often called Deir Hajla, sits in the dry lower Jordan Valley southeast of Jericho. Its tradition reaches back to the 5th-century monk Gerasimus, one of the figures associated with the early desert monasteries of Palestine.
The present monastery is an unexpectedly green, hospitable stop in a severe landscape of date palms, dust, and Jordan Valley heat. It is most rewarding for travellers already visiting the baptismal sites, the Dead Sea road, or Jericho's monastic surroundings, where geography and religious history are tightly bound together.